It has been announced this morning that Fiat Chrysler, as well as Starbucks, have been told that they must pay back between 20m and 30m Euros after their 'dodgy' tax dealings were ruled illegal.
The European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager revealed that tax deals that Fiat and Starbucks had, with Netherlands and Luxembourg repectively, were not fair and did not 'reflect economic reality'.
"Tax rulings that artificially reduce a company's tax burden are not in line with EU state aid rules. They are illegal. I hope that, with today's decisions, this message will be heard by member state governments and companies alike," Ms Vestager said.
"All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax," she added.
According to the Commission, taxable profits for Fiat's Luxembourg unit should have been 20 times higher under normal, non-artificially manipulated, market conditions.
The Luxembourg Ministry of Finance has accused the Commission of using "unprecedented criteria in establishing the alleged state aid".
"Luxembourg disagrees with the conclusions reached by the European Commission in the Fiat Finance and Trade case and reserves all its rights," it said.
Fiat Chrysler has denied receiving any illegal state aid from Luxembourg.
Similar deals involving Apple and Amazon will be scrutinised as the investigations continue.
Click here to sign up for our monthly newsletter
Popular news stories
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|||
|